Ray William Johnson
Ray William Johnson (born ), better known online previously as Fat Damon, is an American YouTuber, actor and comedian. He became famous through his YouTube show, Equals Three, in which he provided humorous commentary on viral videos a show he started in the middle of 2009. Although his content was dark and crude at times, he managed to get fans all over the world ranging from various ages. History "Equals Three" was so popular that his channel was the most subscribed on YouTube from June 25, 2011 to January 12, 2013 before being surpassed by Smosh. The show included a wide range of celebrity guests including Gabriel Iglesias, Snoop Dogg and Robin Williams. Due to the show gained media praise, positive and negative, led to him meeting up with other famous YouTubers. By early 2012, Johnson was a YouTube millionaire, becoming the first YouTuber to gain a net worth of one million dollars. Though the channel had the biggest and at one point the fastest growing following, the show faced criticism from the YouTube community, some finding it immature/dumb and offensive, some saying that Ray Johnson's fans were inappropriate kids with many saying other YouTubers should have held his spot while he was the most subscribed channel. Some also said that Ray commenting on viral videos was not only unoriginal, but lazy and copyright infringing. The downfall of his channel began however in November 2012 when Maker Studios, his YouTube partner at the time wanted a majority stake of his Equals Three show, but since Ray refused, the company left, taking away their contributions to the show, making it decrease in quality, as well as the company taking away the latest album of an animated musical comedy group he led whose YouTube channel was called Yourfavoritemartian. The channel at one point was the most subscribed music channel on YouTube, as well as, one of the most viewed channels on the platform, which was the same for the Equals Three channel which has gained over 10 million subscribers since August 2013 and 3 billion video views since early 2017, hitting one billion views in late 2011 and 2 billion in late 2012 becoming one of the first to do so. The music channel was as well shut down by Maker Studios, which it gained over 1.2 million dollars worth of sales without any promotion or record label. The channel, now independent, was run by only Johnson and his crew later named "Equal Three Studios". The channel became less popular, gaining only 1-2 million views on a regular video, despite how it used to get around 5 million video views on average, due to new algorithms and trends appearing on YouTube and by late 2013, his channel was no longer in the top 10 most subscribed, which it had been since 2010, the second year of "Equals Three". "BreakingNYC his old vlog channel, was his very first YouTube channel; RunawayPlanet. The channel is no longer active and Ray has since deleted all of the videos on it, but he currently posts his Instagram stories to his YouTube channel and is active on Facebook, as well, doing stand up comedy show tours. In late 2013, Johnson directed a highly acclaimed five-part video series titled "Riley Rewind" which starred his then-girlfriend and fellow YouTuber, Anna Akana. Around the same time, he and Akana along with Derek Shelby made a podcast show called "Runaway Thoughts", which not only discussed different things, but answered fan questions (which often got of topic hence the name "Runaway Thoughts") and interacted with the audience. The podcast as well received positive reception with Variety naming it in the top 10% of podcasts in 2013. Ray Johnson left "Equals Three" in March of 2014 because he felt that he wasn't fulfilling himself creatively anymore and if he didn't, he would become depressed in turn, wanting to try new things. Since then, the channel saw a major drop in views and subscribers a day. However, he has done some movies since. He at first uploaded vlogs on his channel and even initially wanted the show to end for good in the middle of 2014, but due to the audience still wanting "Equals Three", he made a private audition for the next host of Equals Three, the winner being Robby Motz, who was 20 years old at the time. He was first met with mixed reviews until fans of "Equals Three" mostly accepted him. Motz left the show in July of 2015, nearly a year after he started due to him similar to Johnson wanting to move on. Later that month, Kaja Martin took over, but due to people not seeing her as the right fit for the show, her in the videos were looked at with much negativity which she claimed didn't phase her, but the "Equals Three" crew (which shortened after Maker Studios' departure) asked their fans to stop. Due to the overwhelming hate from fans of the show and also Kaja wanting to try new things, it changed from her to Carlos Santos in December 2015 with the final episode of him hosting Equals Three, "Friday THE 13TH" on May 13, 2016. The show hasn't returned since with no explanation why. Carlos was said to be the closest to Ray Johnson's commentary of the show, which most say Ray was the best host and wants him to return. Ray, however, says he has moved on to other social media platforms where he has gained more views than ever doing primarily vlogs and stories as well as gained popularity on the platforms and is living life happily doing other projects. The show since Ray's departure hasn't gained as many views and subscribers as it once did, the subscriber and view count going slightly up and down with Motz, a very low drop with Kaja, and a low subscriber and view gain and sometimes drop from Santos. Due to the abrupt stop of "Equals Three" and the other video projects he produced since 2015, it continues to drop. His peak subscriber count was over 10.8 million, achieved in November 2015 and his last recorded subscriber count was over 10.3 million before him hiding his subscriber count in the middle of 2017. He has since revealed his subscriber count again. On June 26, 2018, the Ray William Johnson channel had gone below 10 million subscribers. It lost over 14,000 subscribers that day, which brought it down below 10 million. On December 25, 2019, Ray William Johnson uploaded a video titled, "Guess what I did..." announcing he was coming back to YouTube with a new show called "SUPERHVMAN" where he described the show as "it's sort of a mix between a TED Talk and Equals Three." He has since uploaded 2 episodes with positive reception. Other Shows Besides The Equals Three show, there have been other videos shows on the channel as said before. Booze Lightyear Starring *Ray William Johnson *Carlos Santos *Kaja Martin *Jules Medcraft *Kelly Landry *Luis Victor Jimenez Other Shows * 10/10 (formerly known as Top 6) * Comedians On * Date Debate * SUPERHVMAN Capital Hill Gangsta This was the first series on Ray channel. It started in 2008 with the video called "John McCain may have herpes" and ended on February 17, 2009 (a total of 46 episodes) with the episode "Did you lose?", when Ray changed the name of the show. All of these videos (as well as some of the =3's videos) are either deleted or set on private on his channel. In the show, he discussed current political issues with a twist of humor. List Of Subscriber Milestones *1 million subscribers: March 17, 2010. *2 million subscribers: September 23, 2010. *3 million subscribers: March 3, 2011. *4 million subscribers: July 3, 2011. *5 million subscribers: November 14, 2011. *6 million subscribers: October 20, 2012. *7 million subscribers: January 25, 2013. *8 million subscribers: March 25, 2013. *9 million subscribers: June 5, 2013. *10 million subscribers: August 11, 2013. Decline *Below 10 million subscribers: June 26, 2018. Notable Videos On RWJ's Channel File:Kick his @ss!!|First video on the channel File:DON'T CALL ME FAT!!|Most viewed video File:THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING|Ray's last =3 video File:The Resurrection|Robbie's first =3 video File:ROBBY APPROVES THIS MESSAGE|Robbie's last =3 video File:AND THE NEW HOST IS...|Kaja's first =3 video File:LAST EPISODE|Kaja's last episode FIle:FRIDAY THE 13TH|Last =3 video =3 Hosts File:RayWilliamJohnson.jpg|Ray William Johnson, the host of =3 from February 20, 2009 to March 12, 2014* File:RobbieMotz.jpg|Robbie Motz, the host of =3 from July 16, 2014 to July 24, 2015 File:KajaMartin.jpg|Kaja Martin, the host of =3 from July 28, 2015 to November 27, 2015 File:CarlosSantos.jpg|Carlos Santos, the host of =3 from December 4, 2015 to May 13, 2016 Lawsuits Jukin Media In November 2014, Ray initiated a lawsuit against Jukin after they had accused Johnson’s production company of stealing some of its viral videos for inclusion in the =3 comedy clip series. For example, in a November 7, 2014 episode of =3, then-host Robby Motz poked fun of a man from a Jukin-owned clip who tripped and dropped his new bride at an Arizona wedding. Equals Three sued Jukin (which owns the FailArmy YouTube channel and has built a very good business out of licensing and distributing viral video clips) claiming the studio’s use of viral clips was protected under fair use. Equals Three also accused Jukin of denying the production company ad revenue after Jukin issued YouTube takedown notices against Equals Three videos that contained its owned and licensed clips. On October 13, 2015, Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said Equals Three’s episodes provided commentary on Jukin’s videos and were therefore protected under fair use.http://www.tubefilter.com/2015/10/16/equals-three-studios-jukin-media-fair-use-lawsuit/ Jukin then sued the Equals Three company. In March 2016, Ray William Johnson’s and Jukin Media’s lawyers came together to bargain a settlement prior to the official ruling from the jury. Watch Mojo's "TopX" Series Top 10 YouTube Comedy Channels Ray was ranked 6th in this episode. Riley Rewind Famous Quotes/Sight Gags * "FAKE AND GAY!" – Used by Troll, his character portraying what a troll would usually say by feigning typing on a keyboard and sounding like a jerk. * "GEEZUS!!" – A phrase used when a video goes very viral, very fast. * "Zing!" – A subtitle which came up when Ray has made a joke concerning sexism, racism, or just something which is funnier than usual. * "Epic Face! Epic face!" – A line Ray used when he found a video with people making strange faces. The line usually goes, "epic face! epic face! epic face! epic face! Jizz... in... my pants." Though, on occasion, the ending was changed to fit the video's needs. It was often referred to as, "The Joke." * "Jizz In My Pants!" – A line he used every time after he used "Epic Face! Epic Face! Epic Face!" He would take pictures and then point out the funny faces. This was one of his most popular lines. * "Two camels in a tiny car!" – A comeback line he used in the older videos. He usually said it when the Troll pops up. * "I'm a @#!*%!" – Used all the time, because apparently, he is one. * "Honey Badger don't give a $#!%&!" – A reference to Honey Badger. * "BALLS!" – Ray's swear word of choice. * "Get back in the kitchen! - Famous sexism joke. * "Here's the dildo" – Reference of people thinking that Ray said that in "Shake Dat Ass", but he actually said, "Here's the deal though". * "HOW DOES SOMEBODY NOT KNOW HOW TO FLUSH THE TOILET AFTER THEY'VE HAD A SHIIII$#!%&!T?!" – Used at the end of the videos since "Who sh&@!?". * "Throwing a Baby" - In many of his videos, as a semi-racist joke, Ray throws a plastic African American baby doll against the back wall of the set. This baby was replaced in one episode with an Asian toddler doll after Ray was called out for racism. After the Asian toddler's head fell off during a video, Ray went back to using the African American baby. * "Can we &@!$ it?" – Reference to some discussions in the podcast where Ray and Anna would take anything they were discussing and ask if they could $@&! it. * "Shut the %$#@ up Dan!!!" - What Robby said when Dan interrupted him. * "....And I approve this message" - Would be said during every ending of the show. Trivia *In June 2011, he would surpass Nigahiga to become the most subscribed channel. He would then be overthrown by Smosh in January 2013. References Category:Most Subscribed Channels Category:Users that joined in 2008 Category:Male YouTubers Category:American YouTubers Category:YouTube Vloggers Category:YouTube Reactors Category:One Million Subscribers Category:Two Million Subscribers Category:Three Million Subscribers Category:Four Million Subscribers Category:Five Million Subscribers Category:One Billion Views